Episode: 375 • Duration: 00:56:04
Sorry for the delay on this one, we had some technical issues with mics.
We’re back with a new episode of Bobbing for Barker, and this time we’re going back to a time pre-direction for Clive Barker; here he wrote the screenplay based on his original short story for Rawhead Rex. This has all sorts of issues, from pacing due to the lack of a complex plot to too many closeups of the titular beast leaving the mask looking ridiculous. However, we did get into some specific analysis of the film’s religious overtones!
We’re also drinking coffee on this special morning-recorded episode, as well as discussing Sierra Nevada’s 2026 Oktoberfest festbier in collaboration with Hoppebrau!
Check back all Halloween season for more Bobbing for Barker.
Hit that play button above to listen in.
Transcript – Bobbing for Barker (5) RAWHEAD REX (auto-generated)
Click to expand full transcript
0:00
This September, hear the rattling of chains, see the master of illusions, experience the cabal of monsters, the purveyor of Pain Comes to Blood and Black Rum podcast this Halloween season with Clive Barker’s filmography in Thobbing for Barker.
0:22
Welcome back to the blood and black lumber cast.
I’m Brian from Colts plutation.com and I’m joined with my Co host Martin.
How’s it going?
Yeah, not, not too bad, not too bad, not too bad.
We’ve had technical difficulties this week, so that’s why we’re coming with this episode a little bit late.
0:41
We had to get a new cord for a microphone, so we weren’t able to record in the day that we wanted to, unfortunately.
So we’re a little late, struggling, struggling.
So what happens?
Running on equipment from 1972.
0:58
Well, that’s actually yeah, we we probably should get a new microphone.
I guess it’s it’s probably the.
Yeah, I was thinking about the end goal.
Yeah, I was.
Thinking about it, it’s like, you know, the one that I’m using the blue snowballs been around since the, you know, first episode, so.
Yeah, it’s true.
1:14
It’s maybe time to just to revisit microphones and see now normally ’cause we re recorded off off site normally, like we don’t have the ability to do like an XLR into a nice little, you know, monitor and everything.
1:31
So, but we’ll, we’ll see what we can do anyway, though, with with those those issues aside, we’re back with another episode of bobbing for Barker, our Halloween series that we explore Clyde Barker movies and and stuff that he’s written and directed.
1:48
And on previous episodes, you know, we’ve done a kind of a mix of old and new, kind of been going back and forth and we’ve been doing, you know, some some movies that Barker has actually directed and some that he’s only written or some that are he didn’t even participate in the filming of.
2:05
And he just is basing they’re basing the movie off of his short story.
So in this scenario, we are actually talking about a movie that he did write a screenplay for and he it is based off of another one of his books of blood short stories.
I think this wasn’t when was in volume 3 a fairly long short story, almost like novella length.
2:27
I’m guessing for the Books of Blood volume 3, which I’m not sure if I’ve actually ever read or not.
I, I don’t recall if I’ve actually read this one because I, I can’t remember which books of blood I’ve actually read and not.
But regardless, you know, this is a sort of thing that, you know, the books of blood seems to get infinite mileage.
2:48
You know, again, because we, we covered a whole movie that was based upon just the introduction to the books of blood in the last episode, Book of Blood.
And so every, pretty much every single one of these movies has been based on some sort of short story from Books of Blood, which again, perhaps to Clyde Barker because like for one, you know, releasing like 3 volumes of short stories and you get so much mileage out of it for movies like that’s, it’s incredible.
3:16
I think authors would love to have that happen to them.
This.
Until he sees what they do with their.
Movies.
That’s true.
That’s true.
That’s true.
Yeah.
I, I think, you know, this one, this movie that we’re covering today is that movie where Clive Barker was asked to write it and did the screenplay for it.
3:36
And the film is obviously based off of his original work.
And at the end of the day, when once the film was made, this was the movie that Clyde Barker was like, you know what?
That’s not happening again.
I’m, I’m not allowing someone else to take my story and do whatever the fuck they’re doing with it.
3:54
I’m directing the next ones.
So this movie is from 1986.
We’re actually working back a little ways from like Night Breed and Lord of Illusions that we’ve covered previously.
And this one is even predates Hellraiser, which we have not done yet.
It’s 1986’s Raw Head Rex, which again, I I think like there was like a quite a great journey for Clyde Barker through filming right in that.
4:24
Like he got to a point where he’s like, OK, yeah, sure.
I’ll write a screenplay for it.
And then it came out as we’ll talk about kind of shitty and kind of spoiling this episode a little bit.
And then he was like, you know what?
I’m not going to have that happen again.
I’m going to direct.
And then when he directs, here comes producers filing in with their suits on like, no, Clive, you’re not doing that.
4:46
We’re we’re not doing that in this movie.
And then, you know, eventually gets to the point where Clive’s like, you know what, fine, I’m not doing anything period.
Like, I’m not, I’m not going to let you fucking touch any of this shit anymore.
And I think that’s almost where we’re getting to the point too.
Although he seems to have let people have some versions of his stories of late.
5:07
You know, maybe that’s out of necessity, out of getting paid, who knows?
I’m not here to speak for Clyde Burke, but it is interesting just to see the the Journal.
I was going to say, isn’t he like like a masochist?
Yeah, I mean he is into the BDSM.
5:23
Yeah.
So I.
Mean, there we go.
That’s why he likes his films getting you.
Know he’s like, you know what?
Yeah, yeah.
RIP it apart.
Just fucking.
Fucked and trampled on.
He’s like.
Just he’s just fucking ruin it for me.
Stomp on it, please.
Yeah.
Well, in Raw Head Rex, this is, you know, obviously we talked about a story based on the story Raw Head Rex as well.
5:45
What do you think of the name Raw Head Rex?
Stupid.
You think it’s stupid?
I think it’s catchy.
I think it’s like it gives you, at least from the from a movie perspective, like the tagline and.
No, it’s stupid.
No, it’s stupid because it’s supposed to be like a Pagan DAD.
So like, like what?
6:02
And like 400 AD Ireland, they’re running around like raw Head Rex.
Stupid.
It is actually based on a mythological boogeyman actually, so he did not come up with it.
6:18
And yes, it is actually based on a like English boogeyman.
So yeah, in the sense he did not name it like raw head because he just felt like doing it.
Well you know what?
I don’t care.
You’re you’re, I don’t care.
6:35
Your lore is stupid.
I set you up for that to have a you’re like, no one could possibly have put raw head into a lore.
No, it is Yeah.
Yeah, the actual.
That’s see again, fuck them.
They’re wrong.
You know, like you’re wrong.
Yeah, the actual, the idea comes from this like mythical character called bloody bones, sometimes called raw head or sometimes called raw head and bloody bones for some reason, like as I don’t, you know, like that.
7:02
That one’s like kind of really messes with me.
I like that Wikipedia has with.
There with that guy, right?
Yeah.
So as though that’s sort of like a.
Those children are like, I’m terrified.
I’m terrified.
With or without the hyphens, raw head and bloody bones.
Which one is it?
Oh, it’s the hyphen one.
OK, not as scary, you know, I don’t know how that really makes it any any different in terms of of what that what bloody bones means to to children.
7:28
But anyway, so yeah, it is based on that idea, but they add this raw head Rex, which kind of indicates like Rex as in almost sounds like is it a dog?
Is it like, you know, like is it a fucking dinosaur?
What is this kind of creature?
7:44
And then you go a little bit further and it’s actually a play on words.
It’s the sort of a pun, right, Because raw head comes around and he Rex things in the movie.
And so it’s sort of a play on words too.
So it’s, I don’t know, I think that the idea that the concept of the title is kind of fun and it’s sort of hints at like what should be a really fun creature feature movie.
8:07
We’ll talk about whether that’s actually the case or not.
But I also wanted to just start in this instruction and say, like, what else do you know about Raw Head Rex?
Anything You’re you’re not a fucking thing.
Do you know the director, George Pavlou?
No, of course you wouldn’t, because he’s not really that popular of a director.
8:29
Yeah, no, yeah, just, I was just joking actually.
You know, you never know though, it could be a trick question.
Like that’s that’s true.
Yeah.
You’re like, whoa, wait a second, George, Because I do like it on the cover for the Blu-ray that I have.
It’s like George Pavlou raw head.
Rex is like, Then you’re like, oh, what is it?
8:46
What else has he done?
Oh, nothing, Nothing at.
All see that was like the best thing about rush hour 3 when it came out.
I remember saying all the time because they were promoting Rat ratners Rush hour 3.
Exactly.
Ratners like only done the rush hour.
Like, oh, what else has have they done?
9:04
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
OK, good to know.
Yeah, I do like that though, that it has that kind of silly, silly, littleness nostalgia of this guy who does not really done any other films.
And in fact, though we will be covering another one of his films because he also directed a previous Clydeburg film right before Raw Head Rex in 1984.
9:26
We’re going to be doing that one shortly as well.
So that that might put a bad taste in your mouth.
I don’t know, you know, because, you know, who knows what?
We haven’t discussed exactly how we feel about Raw Head Rex yet.
Yeah.
But anyway, the, the interesting thing about Raw Head Rex in the contemporary time is there’s been a shift, especially considering some of the more, you know, high art horror films or the elevated horror films as a shift towards like something called folk or not necessarily what things were referred to in the past.
10:06
But it’s something that we start, have started to now contemporaneously assign to films and that that may suffer.
Yeah, exactly from something like Midsummer.
But also, you know, obviously the Wicker Man being a a huge example of full core is what, you know, at the, the at the end of the day, the definition of full core basically.
10:28
And Raw Head Rex has been, you know, posthumously assigned to be a like sort of full court.
And I’m going to call a little bit of a yeah, I don’t really, I don’t really think that that’s the case in much because it doesn’t really have all that.
10:45
It doesn’t really match something like The Wicker Man where there’s like rituals and things that you see in that.
It’s obviously very much rooted in the folk ritualistic beliefs of a, of a area.
This is more like saying The Boogeyman is a full court film because it’s just mythological, right?
11:06
Or like, you know, any sort of like mythical creature that is in a movie that the movie’s about is full.
At this point, it’s like Halloween’s a full court because Michael Myers has been around for so long.
That and he’s the Yeah, he’s the epitome of the boogeyman.
It’s a full court film now.
11:21
I do agree that it does meet some of the criteria being like, oh, it’s set in ire, you know, Ireland and it has like a sort of small village aesthetic.
But at the end of the day, day, like the small village aesthetic is just literally being in Ireland.
I’d like, you know what I mean?
It’s it’s like if you were to go visit Ireland.
11:38
So I’m in a folk horror movie.
No, you’re not.
You’re just fucking in Ireland.
I don’t know, you’re in a in a village.
This.
It’s not we’re not, we don’t participate in like some hokey folk rituals.
We just literally live in a village and that’s kind of the idea behind Raw Head Wrecks, where I feel like it’s really a stretch to say this is a full horror movie because they go to a small village in Ireland.
11:58
See This is why I gave the IU off air the straw dogs comparison.
They’re.
Like, yeah, they’re just, you know, they’re in a backwoods area.
And yeah.
Right.
But instead of England, you know, and like Cornish town, it’s you know.
Yeah, I, I definitely would not, you know, would not say that this is specifically a full court film.
12:19
It does have like mythological elements and it does have like this nice as we’ll talk about this nice phallic statue that gets unearthed, which sort of creates the the problem in the movie.
But other than that, there’s really not that much full core.
So I just did want to point that out.
12:36
Excuse me.
I did think it was funny because in the Blu-ray that I have, I don’t know if you read that essay that came with it in the Blu-ray, there’s like a booklet that comes and they they yeah, they kind of touch on the full core element.
And I was like, that’s really stretching it.
Like I don’t, I don’t know if I would say that.
12:53
I don’t necessarily agree with your, with your consensus there.
But anyway, anything else you want to add about Raw Head Rex in this intro before we go into the the beer talk?
I think that covers it.
13:11
How do you feel about the poster artwork?
I hate it.
You hate the the the creature and the lightning you.
Know by looking at it, you’re like, it’s a fucking mongoloid with like a fucking finger.
13:26
Like as it’s back, like it, it’s not doing the film any favours.
Not at all.
It looks bad.
It looks like, like, is it Labyrinth?
Is it, you know, where are we going?
True.
Yeah, it does have a you.
Know it is David Bowie here.
13:44
That is, that is true.
It does have that sort of like labyrinth desk look about it with especially with the color scheme and everything.
It’s very labyrinth like.
Yeah, no, I think they would have done a better job probably to hide the monster, especially without it looks, you know, in the film.
So yeah, it just looks, you know, oh, not the like a film might be like that Looks like if I was going to like this to the cinema back in the 80s and was like walking through and I’m, I don’t know, I’m moving on the seat.
14:13
I see that on the wall but I’d be like that looks like shit.
He’d be like, no, no, thank you.
Yeah.
It sort of has like this 80s like aesthetic of a creature feature film like Pumpkinhead seems like a very similar type of idea for like the poster artwork and things like that.
14:31
Anyway, all right, let’s talk about the beer that we got on the show or that we don’t have on the show 1 or the other.
Like I’m not drinking it right now.
I’ve got coffee actually because we’re recording in the morning, which is not normally the case.
However, we’re going off of memory here as to the beer that we have.
Well, hold on.
Before we do that, I’m also drinking coffee.
14:52
What kind of coffee you got?
Yeah.
We’re going to do a little caffeine talk.
Little.
Yeah, coffee, Coffee talk.
Coffee talk, quite literally coffee talk.
Mine is Mine is a nice.
I want to say I don’t think it’s a breakfast.
I think it’s a French, French roast that I get on Amazon in a 30 LB bag or something ridiculous like that because we go through a lot of coffee.
15:15
It’s whole bean and we just get a giant bag of it because coffee is like exceptionally expensive right now and it’s the cheapest per pound or whatever that we get.
So it’s actually quite good.
And if you, if you don’t mind grinding up your coffee in the morning before you make it or whatever, definitely would recommend getting it for the value.
15:38
So that’s what I’ve got.
And it’s like I said, it’s tasty.
I like to make mine very strong and I even turn we have like a Keurig machine that makes a full pot and I even turn on the strong setting on that when I make it too, because I just like my coffee like exceptionally strong.
So but it’s very nice and French roast is somewhat dark as well.
15:56
So you know, it’s even stronger And no wonder I’m always shaky everyday, just like completely like jittery.
What do you have do?
You want what cream or do you put in there?
Zero Creamer.
I always drink it black.
Yeah, unless, unless it’s like peppermint mocha season and my wife has made some peppermint mocha Creamer, then I will use Creamer.
16:16
But other than that, yeah, I normally drink it black.
Every now and then I’ll have like a little caramel caramel flavouring in it or something, but mostly black.
I got news for you, If that’s what you’re doing for your morning coffee, you might as well just get a giant thing of like Maxwell House.
No.
Mix or chocolate nuts and.
16:33
Yeah, we have had chocolate and nuts.
Actually.
Sarah’s a big fan of 8:00 coffee.
That was what we used to get prior, but it got expensive.
So.
But yeah, what do you have?
I’m having local coffee, Coffee that’s from the area here in upstate New York.
16:56
It’s from a little place called Storch.
Shops starts.
And I got my nice double up 24 oz cup full of their regular house blend and some international delight French granola Creamer.
Nice.
And what’s my go to in the morning?
17:13
See, I feel like because it’s so cheap to go get a coffee at Stewart’s, like you can’t really pass up the opportunity.
If you’re in there, you’re just like, if you’re, you know, if you’re in there doing anything else, getting gas, getting milk, whatever else, you’re just like, I might as well grab a coffee.
It’s like $2.00 for like 24 oz.
17:31
I think I’ll just grab a coffee while I’m here.
And that’s probably where they make all their money from.
It’s just like it’s what they call, you know, like when you go down a cash register and it’s all the crap at the end of the the cash register area.
Impulse items, impulse items.
That’s what that’s what Stewart’s has.
17:47
But it’s coffee.
It’s just like the impulse.
It’s somebody who used to be a cashier.
It’s Stewart.
Well, you do everything at Stewart’s.
It’s like all these you don’t get.
You don’t have one job.
They have you run around all fucking day, right?
Yeah, not my manager would say always have a fresh pot of coffee, 1 cup 112 ounce cup paste for the whole and the rest of its profits.
18:08
So.
That’s right.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And that’s The thing is that’s kind of funny about it is like they do make a profit on it, whereas like you, you pay $7.00 for Starbucks coffee and it’s like why?
Where is it going to like there?
Are you, you’re saying that the free trade agreement that you have is costing me like $6 in overhead?
18:27
Because of this, it’s because your local Starbucks bucks might have unionized and.
It’s all those.
Assholes.
They have to pay for the union.
No, I agree, though, it’s it’s definitely it.
You know, of course Stewart’s is making a profit and they’re selling it at a cheap price to consumers.
18:43
And it’s also fairly good coffee too.
It’s like it, you know, it’s not like not like burnt to a crisp blend that you might get at a negligent gas station or something like that.
So I definitely appreciate their the cheapness and just going in there every now and then and just grabbing one because it’s there so.
19:03
And also too, I don’t know how like a lot of gas stations are because it’s like gas station, convenience store, ice cream palace or upstate buck book buses, buses.
They have the pots and crafts coffee out for you to pour yourself to make it make your own.
19:23
You can do your own.
Yeah.
So it’s not like some, you know, a lot of a teen sitting there fucking your coffee up like I like, you’re at Dunkin.
Like making it too creamy or something like that.
Or not put it, you know, do you know?
So I mean, that’s nice.
19:39
You know, that’s like the best part about it because it’s like, I know how I like my coffee.
I know the exact amount.
I like to fill it up and get it done and boom bam, you know you’re gone.
Yeah.
All right.
So with Coffee talk done, the actual beer that we got for the show today was Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest.
20:00
And we do this every year.
It’s a sort of a tradition.
We do the Oktoberfest every year because.
They collab with somebody, yeah, they.
They’re always throwing it to a different German brewery to collaborate and and have a unique fest beer experience each year.
20:17
Now, I don’t know that the recipe changes all that much, if I’m being honest with you.
Yeah, I don’t know if you agree with that statement, but it.
I would literally have to have like.
Every year.
Like, you know, like back-to-back to back to see.
That you’re going to have to do that this year.
20:33
Save a 20261, save it in the fridge and then you know, wait till next year and then try them out together and then say damn this this fest beer did not save very well over a year.
No, I always wanted to dig a cellar in my back.
You guess what we’re going to do?
20:48
We’re going to excavate in my backyard.
We’ll like build a little beer cellar.
Too.
Yeah, There you go.
And then get it, get it ready for it.
Yeah.
But anyway, they this year they’re collaborating with Hopper Rao, which I like the name.
It’s fun, fun to say, fun German word to say.
21:05
I don’t again, like most years, we don’t really know that much about these German breweries.
I think I feel like you would really have had to have made your way over to Germany to you know, to actually know about some of these places.
Not like we get like Hapa Brow beer often ex imported in so, but anyway, this one, this collaboration with Hapa Brow, I would say is a fairly it’s it’s it’s fest beer.
21:32
It’s not a merits in style.
It’s, you know, light, you know, very drinkable, very sessionable.
I would say that it does have an I don’t think that I’m making this up because of the bias of it, the name being Hapa Brow, but I do think that it has a fairly heavy hop profile to it that’s kind of sets it apart from some other fest beers.
21:51
It definitely feels tastes a little bit hoppier to me, almost tastes like a sort of like a hoppy lager type experience.
We’re like a noble pills type deal in the sense that it has a little bit more happiness to it.
But I do think that it’s a very nice, drinkable, somewhat malty beer sits really well in that fest beer style.
22:12
And I don’t really think you can go wrong with something like that where it’s just, you know, nice and sessionable and something you’d want to drink multiple of on a nice September, October day, especially with right now as it’s been somewhat warmer during the days it’s but even into October.
22:28
It’s a nice little experience for you during Oktoberfest.
How about you?
What do you think?
So I’m just looking it looks like Hapa Brown’s got like a nice little small team because I’m on their website looks good.
22:44
The bottles are great.
They got Hellas a white spear dunkle.
Doesn’t look like we’ve ever had them before, right?
Yeah.
No, not from what I’ve seen.
Yeah, the the bottles are actually really freaking cool.
It’s like a nice minimalistic sort of experience that they’ve got going on there.
23:02
Yeah, that’s actually cool.
I mean, it kind of looks like some Americans like moved over to.
Journey started a brewery over there, yeah.
Like, like I mean from what it’s looking like, so you know, props love it good.
You know, that’s good.
Now I’m going to have to get another one because to me, I was not thinking this tasted like a fast beer at all.
23:30
I thought it tasted like a Marks and I was getting the heavy malt.
Heavy, you know.
Brightiness, you know.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
Bigger body, you know, it’s got the 6% A/B VI wasn’t not saying it’s bad.
I I’m just saying I was getting more when I was drinking.
23:47
I felt like I was drinking like traditional marts and, and not fest beer.
It was good, but I, I didn’t like, you know, so when I went to the websites, I thought like, maybe they just put on the can like Oktoberfest fest beer, like, you know, like.
Oh, you’re right.
24:02
Like just the interchangeable, yeah.
But on the website, it’s they got a fest beer down and I, I, it didn’t taste like a fast beard.
I mean, it tasted definitely like a martyr.
Gotcha.
Yeah, yeah, we’re going like again, we’re going off of memory instead of actually having it at 11:00 on Sunday morning.
24:24
But I think that my, my take on it was that you might be getting more of like probably some of that malt and some, I definitely think there’s a happy profile to it.
I definitely think that that’s coming out, but I would be interested to see what you think if you get another pack and see what you see, see your experience with that one.
24:43
Because I was definitely getting like a fest beer.
But yeah, it can be on the heavier side for the the type of it.
And again, I think that’s that sort of like copy nature of it.
From memory.
I, I do feel like it is a little bit different than the, the 2025 Oktoberfest.
25:00
But again, that could all just be, you know, a lack of remembering what was prior.
So I I don’t know for that for sure.
It would be interesting to see the like, if they were to release like the changes in recipe or how they brewed it this time, they’d be kind of a cool little like insight into what’s changed, what’s different, you know, how did how did we do?
25:23
How did we do it differently this time?
So that would be cool.
Sierra Nevada, if you’re listening, you should do something like that and be fun.
I’ll tell you right now though, from, you know, having the Sierra Nevada and going to the website and seeing the pale ale, buy a 12 pack of the pale ale when I’m out in the store.
He’s like, I do love it.
25:39
Pills.
For the pills game, because you know, I don’t have it that often, but man, when you have it, it’s like.
Like, I do love a nice pale ale.
That’s right.
OK Over there.
All right.
25:55
So yeah, it’s me, Mr. Rudd.
You you don’t call him Paul.
Yeah, No, Mr. He’s Mr. Rudd to you.
You you need well me and him are good.
Friends.
Good buddies.
He lets me call him Paulie Walnuts.
26:11
He does a good impression.
You know The Sopranos, you know you still need to watch.
All right, well, we should.
We should actually get into this movie now because fans of raw Head wrecks are going to be listening and wanting to know what we think about it.
26:29
So I think the first, so the I guess where we want to start is we’re.
A.
Nilbog Yeah.
Well, yeah, you could be.
Yeah.
This is a very particular version of a Irish village.
Well, the way like they shot from the opening credits and the, IT made me think of like, you know, it made me think like, we’re a Nilbog, you know, ’cause it’s, you know, got the like Shire vibes like.
26:57
It does, yeah.
And it does seem to have like, again, like this various, almost sort of a stereotypical version of like an Irish village.
I don’t know if you got that laces.
You know, everyone’s running around saying like, you know, I have sufficient biscuits and, you know, I don’t know, maybe I maybe that was, you know, maybe that’s just a feeling I get.
27:19
But it does definitely seem to be like almost to, to the point where the viewer, they they really want the viewer to know you’re in Ireland pretty critically.
So they’re just like doing as much as they can at the beginning of the film to be like, look, it’s Ireland.
Like, look, look at how close together the homes are and look how, you know, look the the villagers talk kind of funny, right, Because they’re in Ireland and stuff like that.
27:41
I don’t know.
And The funny thing about it too, is that like the story is not based in Ireland.
Like Clyde, Barker’s original story is not Ireland, It’s somewhere in England, I think, to match the raw head mythology.
So the Irishness of this film comes us from somewhere.
27:59
I don’t know if it’s from director George Pavlou or.
No, it was production.
It was a production.
It was cheaper to sell than Ireland.
So they’re just like, yeah, just make it in Ireland and make it Irish, OK.
They want this.
Barker’s story was in Kent, OK.
28:15
Yeah.
So, yeah, they really do like play up this Irishness.
And then, you know, at the beginning of the film, we’re really getting this, this idea that like there’s a weird sort of stone, rock, phallic symbol that’s being excavated by a farmer who’s like, yeah, it’s a monolith.
28:35
He’s like, I really got to remove this fucking gigantic monolith from the idea of it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense because it sounds like he’s just come up with this idea.
Like, yeah, it’s been bothering me in this field for a while.
This giant monoliths, like fucking 15 feet tall.
And it’s like, I’ve been working around it for a while, but now I’m just going to remove it from my property.
28:54
And you would think like the IT would be as some sort of like Irish historical site or something, you know, like it’s not just some, no, not every day you just walk into your stone field.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, Like, I think I’ll just remove that gigantic, you know, 15 ton rock today.
29:12
But that’s what he’s doing.
What do you mean my little Fiat can’t pull the?
Fucking out.
Of the ground.
It’s funny and it doesn’t.
Again, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but you know, and like it’s obvious to the viewer is like, I wouldn’t move that rock.
29:28
That seems like some sort of mythological thing.
Like there’s going to be a being that appears from it.
And sure enough, yes, that’s what happens.
But I also like to at the beginning of the film that this farmer gets like obscenely irate at his friends who are just happened to be like helping him on a Sunday, just like, you know, like, all right, you wanted to pull this thing out with your little tractor there, Like, yeah, I’ll help you try to dig it out.
29:50
And then when they say, like, listen, it’s not working, We’re going home.
And he gets like kind of.
It’s supper.
Time yeah, it gets like unnaturally angry at this.
Like, dude, they were helping you for free to try to remove this giant monolith from your property.
Like, be a little bit, you know, just, you know, understanding that they got to go home to their families at some point.
30:11
And I don’t.
I didn’t understand his anger.
What do you mean not to pull?
You didn’t even go spend your whole fucking night here, Paul.
Yeah, just like did we tried it didn’t work.
So whatever it’s, it is what it is.
But anyway.
I mean, yeah, no, it is.
30:26
You’re right For them to be like, you know, like, look, we’re going home, it’s dinner time.
And he’s like, choke on your dinner.
Yeah, what the fuck, man?
Why?
Why is he so angry about this?
It’s like there’s tomorrow.
You could try it again tomorrow.
Anyway, though, like the whole idea is that they unearth this and that’s kind of where this full core element comes from is like, oh, it’s an ancient monolith and they unearthed raw head wrecks from it.
30:49
Raw head who, who, you know, kind of pops out like fucking Barney or something jumping, you know, and like, mystically gives this farmer guy like a heart attack and then and then like, jumps around and starts wreaking havoc on the village.
31:09
And and there’s also happens to be an American guy visiting and writing a book as you writing a book.
Yeah.
And the idea is fine enough.
But I feel like it is so simple and so basic of an idea of just like unearthed creature.
31:32
Creature kills people.
The end.
Do.
You know what it is?
What?
It’s not Barney.
It was shit like this is the reason why I like even at like 89 minutes this film is like stupid long.
It should.
It should have just been an episode of the Power Ranger.
31:48
Yeah, yeah.
It’s like 1 of Rita’s creatures got you know out is running around Angel Grove causing havoc.
It definitely doesn’t help that the raw head design is so overused and so over detailed in the film’s shots that it really looks like a sort of, you know, Sentai show or something like that.
32:13
Like where it’s it’s clearly a dude in a I’ll fitting mask running around, you know, a large dude, but a dude nonetheless in like a sort of ape like costume.
Or maybe it?
Doesn’t look good.
Yeah.
Like, you know, and it doesn’t work.
32:32
It doesn’t work like.
Do you think it works in a like a wow, that’s funny sort of way?
Like, you know, not even in that sense.
Like, like, oh, it’s goofy, but it’s, you know, I enjoy it.
No, this movie is not within the.
It’s so bad it’s funny.
32:49
It’s like it’s just very boring and.
I, I, I guess I would call it trifling.
It’s just like it’s just the problem that I had with the movie is that it doesn’t really feel like it has anything going on and or like a a scope to it.
33:09
It’s literally just raw head running around town messing things up.
And I did The funny thing about it is when he first comes out and he goes into like a couple of villagers homes and there’s a woman in it, she’s like pregnant and her husband gets killed and she goes upstairs to hide and raw heads just downstairs absolutely destroying stuff for no reason.
33:30
Just like the.
Bag the bag of the Tony Spaghetti.
He rips up.
He’s like, oh, you’ve got a nice antique dresser over here.
Smash.
Like fuck that antique dresser.
And it’s really funny because it just seems like so outlandish to like this creature is just like not just out for blood, but just like, I’m going to wreck your house too.
33:50
Like fuck your house, fuck your garage, fuck your farm.
I don’t, you know.
He’s the Rick James of like monsters.
Exactly, Yeah.
It’s you could’ve just had him jumping on the couch, but fuck your couch.
Right.
It’s he has like sort of a sentient sort of like just I’ll natured temper to him.
34:12
He just wants to destroy everything.
It’s it’s kind of funny.
It’s like it’s not scary.
It’s more like why did he have to destroy that nice dinner she’s made?
Like that was just unnecessary.
Like could have just killed the pregnant lady didn’t have to wreck her dinner too.
34:29
Seems unnatural and then.
We got to have 5 minutes of her being like up against the door and be like, yeah.
Yeah, the, I think the pacing of the the scary parts is not that good either.
It’s it’s not paced like for tension.
34:45
It’s just kind of drawn out for because the film has to be a feature length film.
Part of the problem is that this should really have been something like a Tales from the Dark Side episode or, you know, something like that where it’s not as not as good or as tongue in cheek as something like a Tales from the Crypt.
35:06
But something like that, where it was like a cheaper TV production.
Tales from the dark side monsters.
Something like that would have been a great raw head Rex episode at like 22 minutes, because it’s that’s all it really needs.
The the film being 80 minutes is really egregious because there’s not that much to go off of.
35:27
And it, it actually ends up relying a lot on David Dukes, his character, who’s the, the father of the American writer who’s just like it investigating like Irish folklore and ends up and, and the, the thing that really bothers me about following David Dukes character is that like what he’s writing about seems like really weird and like doesn’t even seem like something that people would actually end up doing.
35:52
Like he’s like goes to a church and he’s like, I’m interested in writing about what happened pre Christianity and like obviously the church people are going to be like what?
What are you talking about?
There isn’t anything.
I need the parish records and it’s like, what are you going to find in the parish?
36:09
Right, like because he because he says that he wants to like write about something from like Neanderthal times and the the I don’t know what the church would have to do with that because it’s like, no, there isn’t anything in church from that time period because it wasn’t established at that time.
36:27
So it is a really weird concept for him to be writing about.
I think though, or at least the way that it’s presented in the movie.
I understand wanting to talk think about like pre Christianity and sort of like the belief systems of Neanderthals and remind me to come back to this, because I do think that actually accidentally.
36:44
The film has a interesting point to make at in the conclusion.
But I think the idea of following David Duke’s character is sort of pointless because he doesn’t get anywhere with his investigation really.
And he’s sort of stumbles on all these things that are accidental.
37:01
And and the other thing is like, it’s not that well hidden because there’s a fucking, you know, painted window of raw head that has like this bleary red eyes that are like constantly reflecting, refracting light into the the church.
37:16
And it’s like, what kind of church would have something like that?
Where like the ones?
The the Catholic churches that have the stained glass windows like that are the ones where battles between Jesus and Pagan’s word shows how Christ triumphed the model.
37:32
I just like like if you were not accustomed to that church and you’re attending for one day and you sit in the Pew and you’re like, is that a sniper?
No, it’s the fucking painted window over there, you know.
But it is a cool effect.
I will give it that.
Like they do a pretty good job of like showing the the two beams of light, the red light coming in.
37:52
It’s a cool effect.
I just think it’s like overall weird sort of experience.
The other weird thing about it too, is the, the investigation that David Dukes does is leads him to like piece together that the church has been like reassembled, like all the painted windows have been like put together haphazardly, that that wasn’t the case before the church was ruined and like had to be reassembled.
38:17
It’s a weird idea like that you took a bunch of broken window panes and like put them back together in a mistaken way.
Like I’m just not even sure how that would be possible.
But it, it, it, I thought it was like a, it’s kind of a cool idea of like, oh, no, the glass broke and we, you know, we had to assemble it together in a different way and it messed up the, the collage that’s on it.
38:39
But it, it’s weird.
It’s just bizarre.
I don’t, I don’t I just thinking about it from like a realistic perspective.
How would you even do that?
Like, I don’t know.
But I I think that the film suffers from having to follow, you know, this character and especially considering the fact that, like his wife, Elaine, Elaine, her name is played by Kelly Piper.
39:02
The wife is like a really poor actress.
I just want to be away from here.
Yeah.
Where can we go to Dublin?
It’s, it’s it, it kind of ruins things too, because she’s she’s just not very good at acting.
And the way that it plays out is like a very like, very weird, like pseudo acting where she’s delivering things in such a dry manner that it’s, I don’t know, it just it bothered me because she was so dry.
39:38
And like, and actually every time that they’re on screen too, is like a really weird relationship between them because she seems like she’s like a, you know, kind of a bitchy wife at the beginning.
Like, why are we in Ireland?
You’re always working, You’re always, you know, like, I’m sorry, I’m trying to make money for this house, you know, and let you travel to Ireland and stuff.
39:56
And she’s like very bitchy.
And then later on, she’s very, you know, sexual and almost tawdry with like, the amount of making out that happens on screen.
They even bring the kids so you know it’s.
It’s like a family.
Vacation.
Yeah, You know, it’s not just really nilly, Yeah.
40:14
I just found it like I I did not care for her character.
It feels really off and weird.
And so I think like the whole family dynamic that is in the film doesn’t work all that well because of that.
So but anyway, the I I think like a big problem in the movie, as we talked about is the costume.
40:34
Costume is far too on screen.
They definitely the director Pavlou should have thought long and hard about like how many times they they do close-ups of raw head because it’s it’s really silly.
40:51
Like it’s unnecessary to they.
They could have like shown him in the backgrounds as like a hulking beast without having to get a close up of like how bad the mask is looking on this performer.
41:08
One example I thought was actually pretty cool was when they show raw head in the distance and he’s like in this like very almost like twilight backdrop with the moon behind him and everything and you can’t really see what he looks like up close.
So it’s sort of like just a you see a hulking behemoth there.
41:25
It’s a good shot.
Now a bad shot is like having the camera literally in it in the face with the mask, like in all the plastic and you know latex readily apparent on the mask.
It’s that’s a bad shot, you know, and doesn’t seem like you would need to be an experienced director to know that that’s probably not a good idea to be like up close and personal with the the monster.
41:48
Most of the time.
It’s silly.
It’s it’s it’s it’s a goofy, goofy thing.
I think some people kind of like that goofballishness, but I feel like raw head Rex is just really underwhelming as a movie.
It doesn’t doesn’t offer that much.
42:05
Even the kills are kind of boring, right?
The only thing I think is kind of interesting is there’s this idea that Raw Head is sort of like this creature that is the opposite of like religion.
42:22
And it’s sort of a blasphemous creature because there’s like this scene where the one of the priests gets pissed on, right?
And it’s like sort of the one of the only things that probably Raw Head Rex is notable for, it’s just is that scene of a golden shower.
What do you think about that scene?
42:41
Stupid.
It doesn’t work like if it like you were saying off air that like the story, like he’s supposed to be like a phallic monster, right?
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
So he’s not.
So if that was in the story.
43:00
You don’t really need it.
Because it’s like.
I I believe that they cut that because in the story, the idea too is, is almost sort of like raw head is sort of like a, a stand in or a metaphor for like a child predator, right?
43:16
Like a like a rapist, A pedophile.
And that was probably a step too far for this for the movie and the producers who are like, whoa now, like, let’s not get that serious about it.
It’s just like a, you know, a nice monster movie.
We don’t want to go into that much depth, you know?
43:33
They have a couple of kids dragged off.
Right, right.
Yeah.
And you kind of have that.
I, you know, you do have that kind of nastiness of like kids are targeted and kids are killed and stuff like that.
But I feel like they were like, at the end of the day, we don’t want to go that far.
43:48
We don’t want to make it feel like they’re a pedophile.
They just they just RIP and tear kids instead of raping them.
So I I like I guess I understand that, but I feel like the darkness inherent in that would actually have made the film a bit better.
44:04
And it would have made the blasphemousness of the like the pissing scene make sense because that kind of comes out of nowhere.
And it’s sort of like la Dee da.
The film’s kind of like, you know, just killing people and blah, blah.
And then pissing scene, you know, it is feel out of left field.
44:22
I don’t know.
It doesn’t necessarily work in the context of the movie, I guess, is what I’m saying.
It seems like something Clyde Barker would do, but it doesn’t seem like it fits the themes of the movie at all.
You know, unless director has a fetish, sort of.
44:42
And then the end of the movie comes and there’s a really poorly constructed like conclusion to it that doesn’t really explain anything.
It’s like there’s a in the church, there’s a figurine like a stone figure and it looks like it’s supposed to be like a pregnant woman.
45:04
And the pregnant woman belly shines a light out and it shoots a bunch of 1980s poor special effects lightning bolts and captures raw head and sends it back to a hellish grave women.
Yeah.
45:21
Yeah, it’s women are the are the supposed saviours for some reason.
And I feel like in the in the scope of the movie and what the movie tells us in the exposition of drives that’s not done well.
45:38
Like it there’s no there it does not develop to that point.
Like this is not like, oh, it’s all leading to this.
Like there’s no real.
It’s almost like it just turns 180° and it’s like, Yep, this is what we’re doing.
Like that’s why it’s important.
And it’s always been in the church.
45:55
And it’s like tomb thing that’s in the church or whatever.
It’s altar, whatever you want to call it.
So we’ve been there and that’s what we’re doing it.
It almost seemed like we just need an ending.
I don’t know.
We don’t know how to end it.
What should we do?
And that’s what they did in the film, kind of tries to make it seem like it’s a revelation, but it’s not hinted at very well in the movie at all.
46:17
The only thing that they really hint at is at the beginning when he does not kill the pregnant lady because he, like, you know, is like going to call her to death and then puts his hand over her belly and is like, whoa, she’s pregnant.
Like, wait a second here.
That’s sacrilegious.
46:33
So I’m I’m out of here, you know, but it doesn’t really explain anything at all.
And I feel like the ending is really abrupt and, you know, could have used a lot more fleshing out to actually give it some dynamic.
But one thing that I do think is interesting about the ending, and like I said, I truly believe that this is accidental and it’s not really in the movie that Pavlou is making, is the fact that it kind of says something about religion in that the idea of it being like this Virgin Mary sort of figure that breaks the spell of of raw head is almost the fact that it it indicates that all religions, whether it be this Neanderthal folklore religion of raw head, exist to kind of thwart each other.
47:25
And that the Neanderthal religion was sort of circumvented by Christianity.
And Christianity now has the power in it like displaces the the ancient traditions of this folklore, which I think is really an interesting thought.
47:41
It’s like, no, it’s not Christianity that has power like a special power or God or whatever you want to say.
It’s just that in the scheme of things, man has gone from one religion to another, and now that has power over this era of of, you know, contemporary society.
47:59
I thought that was kind of interesting.
It’s very much implied and I think it’s at it definitely accidental.
It’s not something that the film really harps on, but as a dynamic, especially for someone like me who is sort of an atheistic person, or I guess at least agnostic, where you don’t really subscribe to a religion.
48:17
I thought it was interesting to see it kind of take multiple aspects of religions and sort of pit them against each other, which was kind of cool and probably sits more somewhere in Clyde Barker’s initial storyline of raw head wrecks of, you know, this folkloric ancient religion.
48:39
Yeah.
Anything else you want to add to that?
This is about it.
It’s more analysis than I would.
It’s probably probably more analysis than the the film makers gave it You’re.
Going to get a call from George and he’s going to be like, man, yeah, right, the hammer.
48:55
Right.
Yeah, I don’t know, it definitely like again, the raw head Rex lacks all of that.
But like, it’s not something that they they, it naturally comes to, but it’s, it’s an interesting element that I, I picked up on.
In between all the Garda explosions and stuff, yeah.
49:16
All right, well, so with that, I think there’s not that much else to talk about with raw head Rex.
It’s a very basic movies doesn’t have much going on for it, so let’s give it a rating.
So on a scale of zero to 10, you know, intimate emotional child peeing behind a Bush scenes, what would you give for I Had Rex?
49:43
I forgot about that.
The whimsical music of her.
Just one.
Nobody smelled the dead rabbit because she’s taking a piss.
And then she gets scared because there’s a dead rabbit there.
And nobody’s like, nobody smelled the dead rabbit, you know, like who’s like, oh, what smells fucking?
50:05
I didn’t know our daughter was eating asparagus.
Yeah, right.
What smells so rank over there?
Over here, yeah, but.
Weird time in that movie for sure.
Very strange inclusion in the movie to have.
50:22
Just like child needs to pee.
Can’t do that anymore.
That’s illegal.
That’d be like child abuse when your kid pissed next door a dead rabbit outside of the road.
Give it a four out of 10.
It’s boring, it’s bland.
I had no fun watching it.
50:40
It was very gruelling for such a simple, you know, thing how like it should just be like something like if it’s going to be this stupid and simple, make it fun and and it’s not fun.
51:01
They they about, you know, play it up too seriously at times.
Like, you know, there’s a lot of down time, like with every kill that raw head does, like it’s like a 5 minutes and then it’s 10 minutes of David Dukes and at the inspector station yelling at the Garda back and forth, back and forth.
51:20
And it’s not like even like Rawhide Rex’s kills or any good.
Most of them are bad and most of them are off screen too.
So it’s really stupid.
And it’s just stuff like usually they’ll just show him like eating like part of the remains and somebody be like, yeah, it’s just too stupid and high on its own farts to to work.
51:52
It’s yeah.
So I mean, like, I don’t know, I I would, I’d after watching this, I could see Clive definitely being like, wow, yeah, it was supposed to be a penis monster.
Yeah, they totally missed the point.
52:12
Going to have to going to have to direct my own film.
Oh God, it’s true.
It’s going to be a.
Can be a fucking mess, but yeah, 4 out of 10.
I was really more than this one.
Yeah, I would give it a I’m going to say I’m going to give it a 4 1/2 out of 10.
52:34
It’s it’s definitely a boring movie that I think would have made a much better short episode of a cheap TV series.
It it’s it’s already on the cheap side for a movie, clearly, like all of the effects are very cheap, feels low budget and it does not have the sustaining storyline, at least as it’s written for this movie to even feel like it should be the short 85 minutes or whatever it is that that it is.
53:08
It’s it it feels overly long.
Feels like not much happens in it.
It it is too piece meal and that it just is various scenes cut together of raw head, you know, massacring people in like Martin said, a lot of the time that’s even off screen.
53:24
It’s just implied that raw head is killing people or dragging children away and murdering them.
It’s so it’s it, it definitely suffers from that.
I don’t think that it has a really interesting element with the family dynamic.
You know, David Dukes does what he can, but it’s not not really that interesting.
53:42
All things to consider.
I do think it has some interesting things to say about ancient religion and like Christianity and how, you know, Christianity is relatively new and in terms of the ancient civilizations, but it doesn’t really do that on purpose.
53:59
It’s more like an accident and stumble into it.
So I don’t know that I can give it credit for that necessarily, but it it it does have an interesting idea at play.
Raw heads design is really bad.
I don’t know why they thought it would be a good idea to just like blatantly put him on screen, But whatever the case, it was a bad idea and it the film would have been better if it had just kept him off screen.
54:24
It would definitely have enhance the the scares and the the the terror, because a behemoth monster creature from afar is definitely a lot scarier than one where you can see like the mask seems just doesn’t work all that well.
54:40
So give it a 4 1/2 out of 10.
I do know some people love this movie for whatever reason, you know, whether it be just nostalgia or, you know, goofiness or whatever.
I don’t think that this movie is one that you watch and you’re like, wow, that was so bad.
It was good.
It’s kind of just a boring, annoying movie more so than anything else.
55:00
So take that which you will.
All right, that does it for our episode on Raw Head.
Rex.
Thanks for listening.
We’ll be back again next week sooner soon now, sooner than normal when this episode releases with another episode of bobbing for Barker.
55:18
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55:33
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55:49
Let us know what you like, what you don’t like, what movies you want us to watch.
Definitely keep that in mind.
Again, thanks for listening to our episode.
More bobbing for Barker to come as we get through the Halloween season into October.
And we appreciate you listening.
Until next time.
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